Bitterroot River named critical trout habitat
by GREG LEMON - Ravalli Republic Staff Reporter

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday announced the designation of critical bull trout habitat in Montana, complying with a court order and revising a decision made by the service a year ago.

The agency plans to designate nearly 3,800 miles of stream and more than 110,000 acres of lakes in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana as critical habitat for the bull trout.

In Montana alone, the designation is 1,058 miles of stream and 31,916 acres of lakes, all of which is habitat "considered not to be protected by some other plan out there," said Wade Fredenberg, native fish coordinator for the service in Kalispell.

This will include the entire mainstem of the Bitterroot River as well as the East Fork and West Fork.

This designation comes almost exactly one year after the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that no bull trout critical habitat would be designated in Montana. It was a decision that sparked a lawsuit by two Montana environmental groups.

Rather than go through a trial, the Fish and Wildlife Service was allowed to remand that decision and revise their designations.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan sued the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2002 to force them to designate critical habitat for bull trout, which were listed as a threatened species in 1998. The groups won the lawsuit and the agency began the designation process.

In their initial draft critical habitat plan, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed nearly 3,300 miles of streams and more than 304,000 acres of lakes as bull trout critical habitat in Montana.

And the significance of that habitat hasn't changed, Fredenberg said.

"That still is the important habitat for bull trout across the state," he said during a Friday conference call. "Because something was removed from this designation, don't' get the impression that it's not important."

But much of that habitat is already protected by other conservation plans, he said. Further protection wasn't needed.

"There's a lot of good things going on for bull trout in Montana," he said.

But Arlene Montgomery from Friends of the Wild Swan said the Fish and Wildlife Service isn't designating enough critical habitat.

"It does not seem like they've taken care of the concerns that we've raised," Montgomery said.

Primarily her concern lies with the habitat they chose not to designate because of existing conservation plans, which she believes still needs federal protection.

Conservation plans and agreements between the federal government and state or private entities don't have the same protection that a critical habitat designation does, Montgomery said.

The key thing about critical habitat is it's attachment to a bull trout recovery plan.

"It's part of a three-legged stool," she said. "You need the listing first, you need critical habitat and you need the recovery plan."

But the wrangling over critical habitat has been partly to blame for keeping the Fish and Wildlife Service from working on their bull trout recovery plan, Fredenberg said.

"Since we got involved with critical habitat and some other issues we've made no progress for about two years now on our recovery plans," he said.

Besides, designating critical habitat adds little protection for bull trout, said Mark Wilson, Montana field supervisor for the Fish and Wildlife Service.

It basically requires that federal agencies, like the Forest Service, consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service about projects in bull trout critical habitat areas, he said. But since the species is listed, they already have to do that.

In explaining the Endangered Species Act to the public, the agency is persistent in saying that designating critical habitat isn't necessary and, in fact, a drain on precious resources.

"The service tries to make it pretty clear that we're not big fans of critical habitat," Fredenberg said.

However, implicit in the ESA is the designation of critical habitat for listed species, Montgomery said.

"These are the places that need to either be restored or protected," she said. "We think critical habitat and the recovery plan go hand in glove."

Another issue that's muddied the waters around the bull trout situation in the Columbia River basin is an ongoing five-year status review for the fish.

In April of 2004, Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a five-year review to determine whether or not the fish needed to be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Since then Idaho, Montana and Washington have worked together to provide a Columbia River basin-wide look at bull trout populations in an effort to convince the Fish and Wildlife Service they don't need protection under the ESA.

This review process has also kept the service from continuing work on their bull trout recovery plan, Fredenberg said.

"In part (the recovery plan) depends somewhat on the outcome of the five-year review," he said.

The review is expected to be finished this year.

The critical habitat designation will be published in the Federal Register on Monday, said Diane Katzenberger, spokeswomen for the service.

On Friday Montgomery hadn't seen the entire listing and didn't know if either her group or Alliance for the Wild Rockies would pursue more litigation.

Reporter Greg Lemon can be reached at 363-3300 or at glemon@ravallirepublic.com